legal

In August, Motorola was seeking an import ban of the iPad and iPhone from the International Trade Commission due to patent infringement, but today Motorola has dropped the case. Since the seven non-standard-essential patents in question were never undisclosed, it's hard to say why exactly Motorola backed off. Motorola's statement clearly laid out that no out-of-court settlement was made, either...

Google's legal team has recently blasted out e-mails to registered developers regarding a subpeona issued by the FBI. Apparently this has something to do with an investigation regarding apps showing up in places where developers haven't provided consent. Here's the full e-mail from Google.
Hello,
Google has received a subpoena seeking information related to Android applications that may have...

As soon as the U.S. sales ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was lifted, Samsung leaped back into the legal offensive, tacking on the iPhone 5 to its own patent claims against Apple. The fresh complaints are an amendment to Samsung's original lawsuit, but surprisingly don't have anything to do with LTE (a technology for which Samsung holds a handful of patents). The patents in question include six...

The sales injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been lifted this evening, allowing Samsung to once again offer the Tab 10.1 for sale in the US. The decision comes after a California jury found that the Tab 10.1 did not violate patent or trade dress claims as made by Apple.
We're glad that Samsung was able to get the injunction lifted, but the fact remains that someone should be...

Samsung shares dropped 7.5% today following the patent case ruling in Apple's favor late last week. While Samsung has been ordered to pay $1.05 billion to Apple, the real damage looks like it will be the $12 billion in market value lost. Meanwhile, Apple's trading jumped from $663 to $679 over the weekend. Ouch.
Samsung has already voiced their displeasure with the ruling and vowed "We will...

"We work with our partners to give consumers innovative and affordable products, and we don't want anything to limit that."
The dust is still setting following Friday's $1.049 billion ruling against Samsung in its patent trial with Apple., and now Google is weighing in with its own official statement The short statement, sent to The Verge, distances Android itself from the patents Samsung was...

The latest Apple v. Samsung case is winding down (hooray!) and the jury was given a huge list of instructions in court today to prepare them for their deliberation. Barring any last-minute changes, the jury should cloister tomorrow and start their decision making, wrapping up this particular battle in the patent holy-war. We have no idea how things will work out, and it's very likely that...

Apple had its quarterly earnings call today, and while looking through the news a thought hit. The financials are proof positive that the lawsuits against Android OEMs and partners can never stop. I'll admit that it sounds like I'm wearing a tinfoil hat, but if you read through the data you'll find one thing that can't be ignored -- Apple makes all of their money on mobile. Apple sells very few...

Bloomberg reports that UK Judge Colin Birss has ordered Apple to post notice on the Apple UK website -- as well as Financial Times, the Daily Mail, Guardian Mobile magazine, and T3 -- stating that Samsung did not copy the iPad's design. This comes on the heels of the ruling from the British High Court stating that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, 7.7 and 8.9 are sufficiently different from Apple's...

Apple is locked in legal combat with many Android manufacturers, with a range of tactics being used to try to keep iPad and iPhone competitors off store shelves. In Germany, Apple's had some success using tablet design patents against the likes of Samsung, and it's also attempted to use the same tactics against Motorola's 10.-1inch Xoom.
However, today a court in Dusseldorf, Germany ruled that...

Rene and his team over at iMore got their hands on a copy of Apple's takedown notice that's being sent to retailers who stock the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Nexus. According to their source, they received both electronic (fax or e-mail) and physical copies of their demands, the text of which follows:
Re: Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., et al., United States District Court,...

Yesterday we heard that the Sprint Galaxy S III was in the midst of getting a small "security" update over-the-air, but with little detail of what exactly was changed. The jury is still out about any security fixes, but one thing that was changed is that you can no longer use the Google search bar to search for local content on the device. This comes on the heels of yet another legal battle...

We heard it was going to happen, and today the Galaxy Nexus has appeared with a price and an "add to cart" button again in Google Play, but things are still a bit off. Prior to the sales ban, we were able to click and get almost instant gratification knowing the phone was shipping out immediately, but now we're seeing a two to three week delay. We're not sure if this is a way to get time to make...

Judge Posner has thrown out the entire case in the on-again, off-again Apple versus Motorola dispute. Citing that neither side was able to produce any real damages, both sides have been sent packing. The case has been in jeopardy for several weeks now, and Posner has previously dismissed the jury trial that was requested. The trial that started way back in 2010, long before Google came into the...

Apple won't be able to hold back the Galaxy S III tide in the US, as their request for an early injunction hearing against Samsung's latest has been denied by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose. Because her calendar was so full she had no time to hear the case before the June 21 Galaxy S III launch, effectively dashing Apple's hopes to keep it out of your hands. This does not affect the...

U.S. District Judge William Alsup made a key decision on Thursday in the Google v. Oracle case. He dismissed Oracle's claims that the APIs that Google used were copyrightable.
Just last week, a jury found that Google did not infringe on Oracle's patents, which was a big win in itself. The copyright claims were one of the key issues though as Oracle was seeking $1 Billion dollars from the...

The jury in the Oracle v. Google case has found that Android does not infringe on the eight claims concerning two patents (RE38,104 and 6,061,520) Oracle owns. Judge Alsup has dismissed the jury, and after a long trial they are now finished in their part of the proceedings. Now, the real work for Judge Alsup begins.
The last verdict, in which the jury found that Android did infringe on the...

Samsung has launched yet another 7-inch tablet, and this time it's a redesigned version of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus for the German market. Similar to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 N, the Tab 7.0 Plus N is redesigned in order to work around Apple's legal shenanigans. The most noticeable change is that metallic trim around the edge of the device, which gives the front face of the device a noticeably...

The European Commission has cleared Google's proposed buy-out of Motorola Mobility, the company has announced on its official blog. Google has hailed the EC's decision as an "important milestone" which brings the acquisition closer to completion. It was reported last week that the U.S. Department of Justice looks set to approve the deal too, and Google says it's awaiting confirmation from just "...

278 claims covering 22 patents across 10 devices
The latest round of legal wrangling between Apple and Samsung has seen the former significantly expand its patent claims against the latter in Australia. ​The Australian​ newspaper is reporting that Apple has broadened its suit against the Korean manufacturer to include 278 claims covering 22 patents across 10 devices.
The Australian suit, which...

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